When Do We (Expect to) Become Adults?

Martina Bodo, Sapienza Università di Roma
Angela Paparusso, Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies (IRPPS-CNR)

Chronological age on its own is insufficient to determine people’s current stage of life, since transitions between stages are not immediate nor uniform, and depend on a broad spectrum of personal, social and contextual factors. People’s perceptions of the age at which individuals enter a new life phase will also vary and differ from societal expectations. Adulthood, in particular, encompasses a wide range of ages, from early to middle and late adulthood. Using data from the 2018 European Social Survey, this paper builds a new indicator and focuses on the discrepancy between ideal (subjective) and social (objective) ages. Unlike previous research that primarily explored tangible events like employment, marriage or parenthood, this study aims to examine subjective perceptions of age and their impact on life satisfaction. Our regression analysis yields the following results. In Northern and Eastern Europe, those who expect to enter early adulthood and middle adulthood, respectively, later than societal expectations report lower levels of life satisfaction, since they can feel behind schedule compared to their peers. In all European regions, except for Western Europe, individuals, who delay late adulthood, are more satisfied with their lives since they feel as if they were slowing down the ageing process.

Keywords: Population Ageing, Neighbourhood/contextual effect analysis, Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Comparative methods

See extended abstract.